I have spent the last few days taking an assessment of my goals, activities, projects, etc. One thing I have come to realize is that making floss is a wonderful activity. I love making it and I love the results. I do not make enough money off of it to justify making it though. I realized that when I priced my floss I tried to keep within the bounds of other's prices. I didn't do it the way I have been taught. Cost of materials, time spent in making it, etc. If I sit down and do the math its simply not plausible for me to do it. Especially with the exchange rate now (I didnt take that into mind either) It has changed quite a bit over the last several months and the dollar is worth even less over here now. For a $2.25 skein of floss I make 1.60 euros. I can't do it. I also under priced the shipping and so all in all this has been a time consuming process with little reward. So if I continue to sell floss I have to make some changes.
1) Slow down and quit being in such a hurry with it, enjoy the process
2) Increase the price and shipping to reflect my costs but still try to keep it reasonable
3) Make smaller batches
Another thing I noticed about my floss is that I make two distinct varieties. The first kind is common out there for a hand dyed floss. You take two or three colors and make a mixed floss, such as Summer Sherbet, in lemon, lime and fuchsia. It has a definite pattern when you stitch with it. A certain amount of one color..and then the other and so on.
The second kind I make is the kind I love. I havent really seen any around. It's a little more difficult to make but the results are outstanding in my mind. This kind is not patterned. I take several colors and make a mix on the thread. I have to be very careful with color choices and placement with this kind. I love the beautiful blends I get with this procedure. Since it takes longer to make I should price it differently than the other.
I started my shop to sell my art. The first kind of floss I make, the patterned kind is not really art to me. It's like a page in a color book, color the shirt red, the pants blue. It is just a process. The second kind is art to me. I am painting a thread much as I would a canvas. So if I want to continue with my goals I will concentrate on art even in my floss.
Sorry if I have bored you all with this, but it is important for me to keep on track and also explain where my mind is at when I implement this change. My main goal is to express my love of life through my art. Secondly to sell what I can of it to help support our family.
Tomorrow I will do an update on my progress with 'Small World'.
Hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday!
Boy...do I understand totally where you are coming from. Underpricing is my downfall also...I am getting better...I was recently told(by another etsian) to raise my prices. I hesitated, but made a few changes and was happy to see my sales and views have gone up......go figure!!!
ReplyDeleteIn all hand made arts, underpricing is inevitable. Maybe the subtlety of the kind of floss you prefer is out of commercial reason! And if you dye floss with a pattern, it is still a great pleasure to work with it, and the result can be art, while you think it isn't. So it would be possible to make the dyeing process a bit more rational by dyeing greater quantities at the same time; if the combination is good, you can get 4 or 6 floss portions out of one dyeing process.
ReplyDelete-- I owe you the cost for one card of floss!
As artists, I think pricing is one of our greatest stumbling blocks, at least for me it is. I always try to remember the old adage....Value for Value!
ReplyDeleteWhen our work has real value to someone they will be willing to pay us the true value.
It is indeed a thing I struggle with. I dont want to price to high, but on the other hand I also dont want to price too low. Too many artist out there undervalue their work. They sell there things at such ridiculously low prices that there is no way they made any money off of it. The problem with that scenario is that they do other artists no favors. How can people value our work if we dont value it ourselves?
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